"Tomorrow when we drop off our patients, we're gonna do things different than usual," Mal said to the crew when they had gathered that evening for supper. "Seems that Charlie's former employer is gonna be waiting for her once we land. Jayne ain't planning to let those people near the kid ever again and frankly neither do I."

Kaylee breathed a sigh of relief. "So you two weren't fighting earlier today? You were making a plan to save Charlie?"

"We had a few words is all," Mal said. "It's done with now."

"So what's the plan, Captain?" Zoe asked.

"Some of us are gonna take our patients to the facility and do the paperwork as usual. Some of us are gonna go meet up with Anna Fitzgold and her people, and someone's gotta stay on the ship with Charlie," Mal said.

"I'll stay with her," Kaylee offered.

Jayne nodded, "Zoe should stay too, just in case of trouble."

"Agreed," Mal said, "Simon, River, and Badger, you go with the patients. Jayne and I are going to dock 12. That's where they'll be."

"What about me?" Inara asked.

"I need you to park your old shuttle at dock eleven," Mal said. "And stay inside, don't come out for anything. We'll come to you."

"Understood," Inara said.

Shortly after Jayne had gone to bed that night he heard Charlie leave her bunk. He hoped she hadn't gone exploring the ship again and wasn't up to any more schemes. Moments later her heard a timid knock on his door.

"Come in," He called out to her.

She climbed down into his room carrying a rolled up sleeping mat, a pillow, and a blanket. She didn't seem to have any guns with her.

"Is it...is it okay if I stay in here?"

"It's fine," He said. He supposed she would eventually be able to sleep in her own room once Anna and her people were gone and she got used to the idea that she was safe.

"Thank you," She said as she unrolled her mat and arranged her pillow and blanket.

"Are you going to kill Anna tomorrow?" Charlie asked him.

"The plan is to turn her over to the law, but I'll kill her if I have to," Jayne said plainly.

"Oh," Charlie sounded disappointed.

"You don't want her killed?" He asked, unsure what she was upset about.

"No, I do," Charlie said, her voice breaking. "She never beat me or hit me at all but that was only because I did what she told me to do. Some of my friends weren't so lucky. Later, she killed my friends. I wasn't so good at being a thief at first but my friend Tommy was really good at it. Anna sent us to a job together. The story was supposed to be that I was his little sister. Except I messed up the whole thing. I got caught and Tommy took the blame… to protect me I guess. Anna shot him in the head for that and made me watch. She did the same to two more friends who failed their jobs...some nights I fall asleep imagining what it might be like to kill her… but that's a horribly wicked thing to wish for, isn't it?"

"No," Jayne said sadly, "It ain't so horrible. That woman deserves to be dead."

"I don't just want her to be dead. I want her to be afraid. I want her to know what it's like to spend every day in fear of her life, afraid that if she fails, someone will hunt her down and put a bullet in her brain. And I know that's wrong. I watched lots of movies with good guys and bad guys. The good guys aren't supposed to make the bad guys suffer. They're supposed to be better than that." Charlie said with a sniffle. "I don't think I can ever be one of the good guys."

"Kid, the movies aren't the place to learn about right and wrong," Jayne said, saddened by her story. "The truth is, even the good guys have some bad stuff in em, and the bad guys probably weren't always bad. The fact that you want to do the right things puts you miles ahead of most people. You ain't a bad kid Charlie and there's no wrong in wanting to see the people who hurt you suffer, least not in my book."

Charlie didn't reply to that but Jayne could tell that his words had affected her. He could hear her crying for a short time. "Can I ask one more thing and then I'll go to sleep?" She asked after a few minutes.

"Sure."

"Is it alright if I call you Dad?"

"Yeah, it's fine by me. I might even prefer it," He said truthfully.